The Sin City actress and married mother of two daughters made her comments in an interview that is published in the magazine's September 2014 issue, which features her on the cover. Alba also told the outlet she was "pretty pissed off" when she turned 30 in April 2011, almost four months before she gave birth to daughter Haven, who is almost 3.

"I don't know why it was so hard, it just was. I was pregnant first of all, and I really wanted to party like a rock star!" Alba told Marie Claire UK. "I didn't even know I cared about my twenties until I turned 30."

"I feel like I look better now. I think I came into my own physically in my thirties, even when I'd had kids," she said. "I'm actually smaller now because everything kind of hangs off differently. But I feel more like a woman, with not such a girl face—I had such chubby cheeks."

(Pictured below: Left: Alba, at age 22, attends the New York premiere of Honey on Nov. 24, 2003. / Right: Alba, at age 33, appears at the 2014 New York Women In Film And Television Awards Gala on June 18, 2014.)

The actress talked to Marie Claire UK about her acting career. She was barely a teenager when she made her TV debut as Jessica in the Nickelodeon sci-fi series The Secret World of Alex Mack and later appeared on Beverly Hills, 90210 and a 1990s remake of Flipper. In 1999, she played a snooty high school hottie in the Drew Barrymore movie Never Been Kissed and showcased her sex appeal again as the star of James Cameron's sci-fi series Dark Angel.

More sexy roles would follow, in movies such as Honey, two Fantastic Four films and Sin City, earning Alba spots on lists such as Maxim's Hot 100. In fact, Alba appears on the cover of the men-targeted magazine's September 2014 issue as well. In a bikini.

"I don't know if I was ever typecast, I just made very safe, boring choices as an actor and I take full responsibility for that," she told Marie Claire UK. "It wasn't the roles...it was probably the way I translated them. I was afraid to be fearless and bold. I was young, I was afraid of being criticized, and I wanted to appease everyone."

Alba reprises her Sin City role of Nancy Callahan in the latter flick in the sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which is set for release on Aug. 22.

(Marie Claire UK's September 2014 issue is out on Aug. 7 in stores and on Apple Newsstand.)

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